Lupe Fiasco: Do artists need constant blog coverage?

Hits Daily Double is estimating that Lupe Fiasco’s latest album, Lasers, is set to sell around 200k 1st week. As you probably know by now, this is fairly impressive in the industry’s current climate.

Lupe Fiasco has been involved in a war of words with the New Music Cartel. The NMC are a group of influential hip hop blogs that include Nah Right, 2 Dope Boyz, You Heard That New, Miss Info et al. Due to constant back and forths the NMC banned Lupe Fiasco from their sites.

What appears to have happened is a significant increase in unique visits on the day competitors Rap Radar, posted exclusive audio or videos from Lupe Fiasco. Especially around 22/23 February. Coincidence? Possibly.

The real question is if music blogs work in favor or against artists.

Of course, music blogs post other content such as artwork – interviews – tracklists – tour dates – videos . So they do act as a useful media & PR tool for artists.

But if you’re promoting a single – is it practical for it to be readily available for free download before its release date? Is The Show Goes On proof that the less you appear on the more popular blogs – the better chance you have of selling records?

It’s worth noting that neither Lupe Fiasco or Lasers were high impact search queries for any of the sites in the past month.

The marquee artists (Jay,Em,Kanye,Drake,Minaj *SMH*) do not need blog coverage…the Radio and TV platform far out reaches the 1500 people that visits “XYZ blog”

Also take in mind that most those people who visit those sites mediafire artist’ albums regularly….

I believe the blog are a great avenue for upcoming rappers who are trying to get into the hip hop relevancy door, to the industry door and ultimately to build their brand i.e. Aubrey Graham, B.O.B

However once they open all the doors that leads to becoming a brand itself, once they’ve done that Sprite commercial that appears during the Superbowl TV timeout commercial spot, once they’ve performed in front of the President of the United States of America….once that occurs, your favorite blogs not posting their music as often becomes laughably irreverent.

I would argue that while Wasalu isn’t a marquee artist, his fanbase is an independent artist’s DREAM- passionate, loyal, and willing to support their artist. This backlash towards the NMC has been long brewing– look at OFWGKTA. According to all accounts, they attempted to reach out to the blogs, but got NO PLAY. Instead, they shitted on them, developed fans, and are now doing Fallon and on the cover of Billboard, all while having NOTHING in stores. They found other outlets THEY could control- Twitter, Formspring, Tumblr- and found other blogs who aren’t beholden to major label interests. Now that they are winning (#charliesheen) the NMC can’t even attempt to get on the bandwagon, and those site who DID post their material essentially have exclusive content (see: Rap Radar x Lupe posts).

I think those two things are more important than being marquee- because I would be my wife, house, and 3 out of my 4 kids that if CamelGOAT said fuck the NMC tommorow, they would STILL post his newest song later that day= FACT. However, being able to BYPASS them all together is even more important– having your own means of CONTROLLING your music and you message has become paramount. You don’t NEED blogs, but you do need those willing to work with you and your message.

How does playola/exclusives play into the blog ads and promoting artists?
Blogs are necessary for DAMAGE CONTROL
artists are bound to do subpar and stupid stuff
having blogs on your side can help keep your name clear.